News

Apple, iBiquity Digital announce iTunes HD Radio tagging

By Charles Starrett ● Friday, September 7, 2007

Apple has announced a partnership with iBiquity Digital and major radio broadcasting groups to create an industry-wide service called iTunes Tagging. iTunes Tagging lets users who are using HD Radio receivers that have been equipped with a special Tag button to “tag” songs that they hear on the FM dial for subsequent purchase via iTunes. “iTunes tagging takes music discovery on the radio to the next level,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod Product Marketing. “When a song plays on your HD Radio that you like, a simple push of a button will tag it and later give you the chance to preview, purchase, and enjoy it with iTunes and your iPod.” Bob Struble, CEO of iBiquity Digital, the developer of HD Radio technology, said, “Research consistently shows that radio is the predominant source of music discovery. Now, with iTunes Tagging, HD Radio technology provides a cool new way to capture the songs listeners discover, buy them on iTunes and then enjoy them.” Both JBL and Polk have announced support for iTunes Tagging in their upcoming iHD and I-Sonic products; in addition, several major broadcasters have pledged support for iTunes Tagging, and will implement the feature, initially, across hundreds of stations. More announcements concerning iTunes Tagging can be expected at the NAB Radio Convention, which runs September 26-28.

Comments

1

I hope that this is really Apple’s “first step” to providing such a feature on iPods. (or even in iTunes, for that matter).
It’s always been speculated that the key reason for them to omit a radio in the iPod, has been the fear that people would just listen to the radio and not buy songs. If they can use such a feature to sell content, the day that we see radio added to iPods may not be far off.

Posted by MirandaKali in D.C. on September 7, 2007 at 10:33 AM (CDT)

2

Yea, it is not the big-deal it is made out to be - consumers have shunned table-top HD radio, so why should they spend $500 for a device that still requires AM-loop and externally-mounted FM-dipole antennas to even have a chance to pick up the fragile digital HD signals. This is far from having Apple actually including it as a part of the new iPod. This is all to late for HD Radio:

3

I think this is really cool and can’t wait to buy one! I love discovering new music and the fact that I don’t have to remember the name of a song I like until I get a chance to buy it is really great.

Posted by SteveSilva on September 8, 2007 at 1:17 PM (CDT)

4

The online music service smstunes.com already have this tagging service for most popular US based FM radio stations (no HD), you just need to send a text message with the station frequency, not as easily as pressing a button but still can be useful as you can use it anywhere in US with your mobile, more details here:

5

Many HD radio stations use a Moseley SL9003Q STL configured for 32kHz audio. That isn’t much better than analog FM. A few stations however, such as KLJT in Jacksonville, TX transmit the full 44.1kHz which is very nearly CD quality. Comparing iBoc (HD Radio) to analog FM, is like comparing iTunes AAC to limewire MP3.